It’s that time of the year again: where you’re probably at work, and I am not, for today is the recognized Confederate Memorial Day.
It’s a paid day off, so I’m not complaining about that part, but it never fails to amuse me when one of the Mondays of April is recognized as such an ironic day of remembrance. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe people who publicly exclaim their excitement of the approaching holiday, because they’re not really paying attention to why we’re getting the day off, as much of the knowledge that it’s a day off.
Ironic in that regard, is the fact that it’s unavoidable to not acknowledge that Atlanta is a very predominantly black city, and there were people in my office who happen to be black, being overheard talking about how they couldn’t wait for the “holiday weekend,” because it meant having an extra day off, and their subsequent plans to accommodate the extra time.
Personally, I like to brag about the fact that I have an extra day off, and then smirk and mockingly say for why. The irony in acknowledging, much less “celebrating” Confederate Memorial Day is not lost on me.
As for what I did over the weekend, I kind of shot myself in the foot; I say kind of, because it wasn’t because of an unworthy cause, but I did forfeit my aspirations to spread my wings and explore somewhere new. I had earmarked Sunday, as a day in which I would have either flown to Houston, Texas if the flights were accommodating, to knock another ballpark off of my list of Major League ballparks, but if that didn’t work, I was thinking about driving to either Chattanooga or Greenville, two areas within reasonable driving distance, to where I could have seen some Minor League baseball in a park I’d never been to.
It’s no secret that I do love my traveling. But none of those trips happened, because I picked up a rush freelance project that went into Sunday, and obligation does come first. So I opted to do work and make money, instead of spending money and traveling. In the end, it’s comes out about even, but in some regards, I feel like I missed an opportunity to explore a new city on a weekend where I wouldn’t have been penalized by missed work, if I happened to get stranded somewhere.
Que sera, sera, so I guess I’ll settle for the consolation prize of making money, and getting to sleep in and relax on this ironic holiday instead.
